America’s healthcare debate has been stuck for decades—framed as a political fight between left and right. But what if that’s the wrong lens entirely? In this episode of The Puck…
America’s healthcare debate has been stuck for decades—framed as a political fight between left and right. But what if that’s the wrong lens entirely?
In this episode of The Puck , Jim Baer sits down with economist Joe Antos of the American Enterprise Institute to unpack the real issue: tradeoffs.
Who pays? Who gets access? How much innovation do we support—and what are we actually willing to spend?
Antos draws on decades of experience inside the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and Medicare policy to explain why the system feels broken—and why many of the proposed solutions miss the mark.
Key themes include:
Why insurance coverage ≠ access to care
The government-created bottleneck behind doctor shortages
How incentives—not ideology—drive system dysfunction